Reese and Cheryl
by iMasters
Summary: Reese has been partnered up with a cute girl in Science class for eight weeks now. He finally decides that today will be the day he asks her out, but will she accept him? What will he learn from the whole experience?
1. Chapter 1

_This story is set between the end of Season 4 and Season 5, and is inspired by Reese briefly mentioning 'this cute lab partner in Science', Cheryl in Episode 5x02 'Watching the Baby'. Also my first fan fiction attempt — would appreciate any constructive feedback. Planning for the story to be five chapters long._

There was another loud rap on the bathroom door.

"Reese, get _out_ of there! You've been in there for like, 15 minutes!" Malcolm barked, in his usual unnecessarily angry tone.

Reese sighed in frustration and annoyance at his younger brother and finished checking his hair in the bathroom mirror.

"All right, I'm _out_," he replied, his tone of voice sounding much more defensive than he would have liked.

"What the hell were you doing in there?" Oh great, here came the interrogation.

"Nothing." Reese replied flatly, again desperately trying to disguise his desire not to reveal why he needed to spend so much time in there.

"Whatever". Thankfully, Malcolm had apparently lost interest for now.

Reese proceeded downstairs, into the kitchen. His mother Lois was feeding his baby brother Jamie, his other younger brother Dewey sat at the table eating a bowl of cereal while his father Hal drank a cup of coffee and read the morning newspaper.

The kitchen table was the hub of the morning routine in the Wilkerson household, if you could call it that. It wasn't so much a routine, as a mad dash each day to get everything done and get everyone out the door. This morning, though, there was a strange calm about the place.

Reese walked across the room and popped a couple of slices of bread into the toaster. His mind drifted for a moment; he was thinking about Cheryl again — and whether today would be the day he finally summoned up the courage to ask her out. He caught himself thinking about this and stopped himself; it was almost as if he were scared someone would read his thoughts and find out his intentions. He sat down and began to butter his toast.

Before long, Malcolm, Reese and Dewey were ushered out of the door and in the direction of school. As usual, Malcolm had found something to complain about, while Dewey seemed calm and sedate; wrapped up in his own world perhaps. Reese walked towards the schools with his brothers, on de facto guard duty. Few people would be able to physically challenge Reese, so despite the Wilkersons being fairly universally despised amongst 'normal people', as Malcolm put it, they were pretty much safe. After a while, Dewey peeled off to the junior high school and Malcolm and Reese continued on to North High.

The two remaining brothers bid each other a reluctant goodbye, their voices still somewhat strained with an awkwardness due to the earlier bathroom conflict. Reese headed towards his form room and, now alone, returned his thoughts to Cheryl. Not really paying attention to where he was going, he bumped into the very girl.

"Ouch! Watch where you're —" Reese initially reacted with his usual aggression, quickly regretting doing so as he realised with whom he had collided. "Hi, Cheryl. I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention."

"Right… whatever," came the distant reply, as she turned and walked away.

"I'll see you in Science!" Reese called back, desperate to stop her walking away, to prolong this unexpected exchange and maximise the amount of time he spent with her today. He exhaled in frustration, he rued reacting initially as sharply as he did, not knowing who it had been. Still, the game wasn't up yet, there was a whole hour he could spend with her later.

Someone bumped into Reese exactly as he had done to Cheryl moments before. It was a younger kid: a short, skinny boy who looked about 13.

"Hey, watch where you're going, dumbass!" Reese shouted at the little kid. "Now, scram — before I throw you in a garbage can or something!" Reese's instructions were followed without hesitation. Exercising his power over the kid eased some of the frustration and anger at himself — and Malcolm — that he had felt over the course of the day so far.


	2. Chapter 2

The first few lessons of the day passed rather uneventfully. School was, for the most part, hopelessly boring to Reese. Why did he need to learn stuff anyway? He could get by in the world. He was respected by people (although perhaps more through fear than anything else), he had a role. Yeah, he could get by. Did anything else really matter?

He twiddled a pencil around in his fingers as he sat staring at a Math test paper on the desk in front of him. Just 10 more minutes until what was hopefully going to be the highlight of the day — Science — asking Cheryl out.

They had been lab partners in Science for eight weeks now. Reese thought she was incredibly attractive, with shoulder-length blonde hair, wide blue eyes set in a soft, rounded face and a feminine figure. Most exciting of all was that she seemed to show at least a passing interest in Reese. Every lesson, they laughed and joked about how pointless all this lab experiment crap was anyway. Her usual vibrant, friendly attitude towards everyone, Reese included, made her response to the earlier collision incident puzzling. Reese told himself to pull himself together. She _did_ like him — he was sure of it. No longer would he chicken out of this. He was asking her out. Next lesson.

The bell signalled the end of this Math lesson. There was a grinding of many chairs against the floor as the class jumped up to leave with considerable enthusiasm.

"Wait! I want all your test papers in a pile at the front!" barked Reese's Maths teacher over the din. There was a flurry of activity as the test papers were picked up and slung across in the general direction of the teacher's desk. Reese did the same and was almost out of the door…

"Reese!" the annoying teacher snapped. "I'd like you to stay behind for a moment." Reese groaned inaudibly at the prospect of having to once again face his academic failings, or some punishment for something. The teacher was a man in his fifties, with balding black hair and an old, somewhat tattered suit and tie. Malcolm would have made some clever quip about this teacher being on the way out, or something.

"Reese, I want to talk to you about your grades."

"Yeah, what about them?" Reese replied sarcastically, not even needing to think about mustering the courage to be rude and abrasive.

"… and your attitude," added the teacher, becoming visibly agitated by his student's lack of respect. "Reese, this isn't good enough. I'm going to have to get in touch with your parents—"

"Do whatever you want, I don't actually care," Reese retorted, walking off; almost pushing the teacher out of his way. He'd take the punishment from mom when he got home anyway for whatever this was about. Right now there were more important issues to deal with. He broke into a jog, almost dashing down the corridor, desperate to not be late for the class and give a bad impression for Cheryl.


	3. Chapter 3

"Hi Cheryl," said Reese, determined to stay cool. He promised himself there and then that he would do it — this lesson. No excuses.

"Hi," she replied, slightly coyly. Reese found it difficult to read her mood now; whether she had been negatively affected by their earlier encounter. He rarely felt nervous or anxious about anything at all, but the pressure he was putting on himself to actually get this done — to ask her out — was resulting in an unpleasant tension in his stomach. Why should this be so difficult?

They sat down, Reese trying desperately to hide how awkward he felt, while the teacher began addressing the class and explaining what was to be done. Reese noticed a subtle hair flick gesture from Cheryl. Conscious as he was not to overinterpret every little thing, he took that as a good sign that things were OK. Once the lesson got started, once there was a hubbub of privacy-protecting conversation in the room, he would go for it.

He took several uncomfortable deep breaths as the lesson got under way. They first had to write down the details of the experiment in their books before the only bearable part of the whole hour began — actually messing around with reacting chemicals. If any part of school was even remotely interesting, this would probably be it. Things would spark and fizz, maybe even burst into flames — stuff actually happened.

They settled down to start collecting the things they'd need for the experiment. Reese decided that now would be as good a time as ever. Cheryl turned to go and fetch something.

"Cheryl, I…"

He stalled, as though trying to wrestle that courage and motivation out from wherever it had suddenly gone to hide. What was he supposed to say? A good two seconds elapsed with him stuck in mid-sentence. Cheryl had turned around to face him now, fixing him in what felt like an intense gaze.

"I wondered if…" Seconds continued to feel like hours. For each and every instant she continued to look at him like that, he felt even more intensely uncomfortable and awkward. "… I…" He couldn't bear it now. "… I should… maybe, get that experiment stuff for you."

"Oh… OK," said Cheryl, mildly puzzled but apparently unfazed. Furious with himself, Reese grimaced as he walked away from the desk.

_You are pathetic, Reese_, he told himself. _What the hell was that? Get back in there and do it!_

Reese became increasingly frustrated with himself as the hour progressed. He had chickened out a further two times — the moment wasn't right, or someone might overhear him and laugh, or something might happen that would make it unsuccessful. Each time, he just couldn't bring himself to step over that threshold.

He decided that if he couldn't make himself say it, he'd write it. She got up to go and talk with a friend of hers across the room, doing it subtly, so as not to attract the teacher's attention. This was the perfect opportunity to compose a note he could leave for her to find when she came back. This might not be the perfect way to ask her, but he'd be damned if he was going to be beaten again — time really was running out.

_Cheryl,_ the note read. _I really like you. I wonder if you might want to go out with me sometime?_ He signed his name at the bottom. It was simple, but that didn't really matter. He carefully folded it in two and quickly put it on the desk where she would see it as she sat down, but where it wouldn't draw too much attention at a quick glance. He exhaled in relief; hopefully that had been the hardest part.

She bounded happily back towards the desk as her conversation came to an end, clearly having found something she'd just been told amusing. She became aware of the presence of the note almost immediately. She unfolded it and spent several agonising seconds reading its contents. Trying to watch for her response without wishing to stare at her, Reese's glance flicked up from his workbook several times each second. She let out a small shy smile initially, but as she read the bottom of the note, a puzzled look spread across her face.

She turned to him and said: "Do you know who Reese is?" A horrible sinking feeling consumed Reese. An enormous amount of hope and expectation that was being held up precariously in the air, waiting for this moment, suddenly dropped right to the floor. He managed to make a rather pathetic shrug gesture, trying to conceal the crushing disappointment he felt.

Cheryl turned around to address the whole room. "Does anybody know who Reese is?" she said, her voice raised so it could be heard over the background conversation. A few people turned around, some of them shrugging or murmuring that they didn't know. Trying to take back control of this situation which had suddenly escalated into the public eye, Reese turned to her again.

"Probably some nobody," he said to her as casually as he could manage, doing a better job this time of making the situation seem insignificant. That was it. It was all over.

Dejected and dispirited inside, he let the rest of the session and the school day pass mostly in silence. Maybe he had been right. Maybe he _was_ a nobody.


	4. Chapter 4

Reese had walked home in silence, feeling more than a little sorry for himself. He hadn't even noticed the same kid from the collision before, who had waited, terrified, by the front gate for Reese to be way out of sight before making his journey home. None of that power, influence and status meant anything at all right now.

But Reese wasn't one to remain sullen and miserable for any longer than was necessary. Like always, he'd convert how he felt into action. Something tangible, something outside of himself. It made it all feel real; it was the best way to express himself and be able to move forward in situations like this.

His mind turned to what he could do in this particular situation. He was reminded of the rather hostile exchange with his Math teacher from earlier, which up until now had been all but forgotten. Undoubtedly there would be a fallout from that when he got home for whatever academic failing or misdemeanour that was about. It had been the right course of action at the time, Reese reassured himself, it was just unfortunate that what had been so important then was now lost.

Realising he was fast approaching home, he braced himself for the inevitable. As soon as he walked in the door, he was pounced upon. He froze, just inside the front door.

"You _attacked _a _teacher_?!" Lois bellowed, from some distance, probably from in the kitchen. She was obviously irate, but was in control of how she delivered each word — slowly and intricately, making sure she put just the right amount of emphasis on each syllable. Clearly, she had known about this and had been preparing this attack for some time. She marched towards where Reese stood and fixed him in an intense glare.

"What are you _talking _about?!" Reese aggressively shouted back. Something primitive and volatile had suddenly awoken in him. His instinct had taught him to deny everything right away — if you gave Lois an inch, she'd take a mile. Instantly, all of the previous events of the day were gone; he was now utterly consumed in focusing on defending himself from this domestic onslaught.

"Your Math teacher, Reese," Lois said, lowering her volume, setting up the context for her next strike. "He wanted to talk to you about your grades." A pinch of desperation crept into her voice on that last word.

"Yeah — and I didn't want to!" replied Reese defiantly. "He was in my way, I needed to go somewhere so I…" He paused for a moment, thinking of a way to explain the event that would sound the best. "… I … moved him out of the way, slightly." He realised he had done exactly what he was trying to avoid: he had given Lois more ammunition.

"Mr Gibb said you pushed him against his desk and then ran off! Reese, you can't go around in life, literally pushing people around who are in authority, just because you don't _want_ to talk to them!"

"I don't have to listen to you!" Reese raised his voice even further, clearly having realised he had lost. He stormed off, finally moving from the spot just inside the front door. Lois gaped in amazement and disbelief at Reese's lack of obedience and at the unpleasant irony of what he was now doing — exactly the same thing he had done to the teacher.

"Reese!" she yelled at his back as he stomped off. "He was trying to tell you your grades — they are_ improving_!" She gave up trying to hide the desperation in her voice.

Fuming, he ignored her and thundered up the stairs, charging into the room that he shared with his two brothers. Malcolm was sitting at the desk; he had already started on his homework. Reese threw his school bag down to the floor with unnecessary force, breaking Malcolm's concentration.

"What the hell!" protested Malcolm. "What is _wrong_ with you today?"

Reese had no interest, of course, in recounting the events that had led up to his current mental state and telling Malcolm all about it. He proceeded to throw himself on his bed, hands behind his head and facing the ceiling, still holding his whole body tense. He was grateful that Malcolm didn't seem interested in pressing for an explanation and had returned to his work.

His mind was swimming. After all that, his grades were _improving_? And what about the mess he'd made with Cheryl? Surely now he'd burned his bridges with her; he couldn't realistically formulate and execute a strategy to 'try again' with her, not without looking like the school's biggest loser.

He began to doubt himself — he'd always derived meaning from being powerful, being someone who was feared. But if no-one honestly knew who he was, that can't have been working anymore, could it? He didn't really have friends to speak of and neither was he notorious anymore. So, where did that leave him? And he ached for Cheryl. He'd spent eight weeks finding her really attractive, finally mustered up the courage — but then was rejected. Did she honestly not know his name after all this time, or was that just an easy way of getting out of it, a way of publicly humiliating him?

He exhaled loudly in frustration and anger, but quickly realising he didn't want to give Malcolm any reason to start an interrogation, he coughed in a vain attempt to disguise it. Malcolm made a disapproving noise, but continued working. Somehow, Reese had a horrible feeling that the worst of this Cheryl thing wasn't over yet.


	5. Chapter 5

At dinner, Lois was intent on completely ignoring Reese's presence. She deliberately and very obviously asked Dewey, Malcolm and Hal many questions about their day, feigning a keen interest in each of them. Reese was merely thankful that he had apparently shelved attacking this issue head-on for now; his mom wasn't apparently even interested in grounding him — at least not right now. She could play this game all she wanted, as far as he was concerned.

The phone rang as the family were all sat down at the dinner table. The table erupted with a chorus of "not it", each member of the family keen to absolve themselves of the chore of picking up the phone. Dewey was last to say the two words and grudgingly got up to answer it.

"Hello," said Dewey. He listened to the other person on the phone for several seconds. "Reese?" He seemed a little taken by surprise. The rest of the family around the table suddenly turned and looked at Reese.

"What? Why are you all _looking_ at me?" Reese said, defending himself and feeling a sudden pang of anxiety at who might be on the line.

"OK," Dewey said to the person on the phone. He turned to Reese and gave him the phone. "It's… for you," he said, still sounding surprised.

The anxiety quickly ramped up and was promptly mixed with a contradictory cocktail of hope and desperation. On the one hand, he would love another chance just to hear Cheryl's voice again, just to feel even vaguely connected to her once more. On the other hand, he had screwed up today. Was this call just another opportunity to humiliate him? Was it even her at all? Who else could it be?

"Hello?" said Reese, nervously, almost a quiver in his voice. He walked away from the dinner table, away from where he would be overheard.

"Is this Reese?"

It was her. The confusing mixture of feelings and desires suddenly consumed him completely — even the relative calm and order of the unpleasant dinner situation moments ago was preferable to this.

"Um… yeah. It is." This was it.

"It's Cheryl, you know, from Science class? You remember that note I found on the desk?" she continued. Reese said nothing; he was literally speechless. Cheryl went on without needing an acknowledgement or answer to her question. "Well, I asked one of my friends after class if they knew who Reese was. They said they thought it was, well, might be, you. So I found someone that knew your phone number."

He was paralysed. He just couldn't say anything — not least because he still didn't know exactly what her intentions were, but also because he wasn't at all keen on revealing the content of this phone call to anyone else in the house. Not just yet, at least.

"Reese, are you still there?" Cheryl said.

"Yeah, sorry. I —"

"Well, is it you? I mean, did you write the note?" she asked, sounding nervous and embarrassed herself now, clearly eager to get an answer.

Reese debated this situation in his head briefly. He had said that it was probably some nobody, so saying yes here could have quite a cost in terms of his status if her intentions weren't good and she wanted to bring him down. Screw it, he'd take the risk.

"Yeah, it _was_ me. I really do like you Cheryl, I really do—" he started.

"It's all right, Reese. I know," she said, sounding relieved. Reese felt an enormous rush of relief and exhilaration at these words, his face involuntarily turning to a wide grin. Not only was everything all right, she _was _interested. He _wasn't _a nobody! She _liked_ him!

The concoction of emotions from a moment ago had been upheaved and reloaded once again. He was elated at the prospect of someone, not just someone, but_ her_, finding him attractive. Equally, however, he was terrified. The idea of a first date was both petrifying and exhilarating. All of these dramatic shifts in mental state over the past minute or so left his stomach tied in knots. Right now, though, he wouldn't change that for the world.

"So, do you wanna go out sometime? Are you free tomorrow after school?" she asked. Reese could see that cute little smile she must have on her face right now. She smiled himself, then realised his mind had been wandering, he was caught off guard — this question did need an answer!

"Yeah — that sounds great. Shall I meet you at the school gate?" Reese replied, beaming.

Lois' nagging voice broke his concentration on the phone call and sliced into this almost perfect moment. "Reese, what's going on in there?"

"Sorry, I gotta go. I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Yeah, definitely. Bye." Cheryl said, sounding stunning even in saying goodbye.

Reese quickly ended the call, not yet wanting to give too much away to his family. He reflected for a moment: the trials of the day suddenly seemed insignificant — it _had_ been worth it; he _had_ been successful.

She _liked_ him. _She _liked him. She liked _him!_ Reese kept repeating those words in his head, playing around in his mind with this new ecstatic truth that _she_ actually wanted _him_.

Apparently she genuinely hadn't known Reese's name even after eight weeks of being lab partners; perhaps she had simply been too embarrassed to ask him his name.

But none of that, or anything else that had gone on today mattered now. This meaningless family conflict would pass soon enough and before long it would be tomorrow.

Tomorrow. Reese and Cheryl's first date. Reese let those words dance around his head too, lighting up every corner of his whole being. He couldn't wait.

**THE END**


End file.
